Eyebrows: Beauty Quick Fix

It’s not just about tweezing stray hairs — eyebrow shaping is serious business. The brows frame the face and the wrong shape can make your eyes look small and tired. But what is the secret to well-sculpted arches? We asked Sania Vucetaj, owner of Sania’s Brow Bar in New York and tweezing devotee, to give us a crash course in eyebrow maintenance.

What’s the best way to shape brows?
Using slant tip tweezer, place the tweezers as close to the skin as you can, and then swiftly pull the hair in the direction of the growth. Stand about a foot away from the mirror and regularly alternate between brows, only pulling a few hairs out at a time before switching back to the other. This will guarantee that you don’t end up thinning one side more than the other.

Where exactly should I pluck?
When shaping your brows, always stick to your natural shape and target two main areas. The first is underneath your brow, which will help you create a nice arch (The more you tweeze, the more pronounced the angle will be.) The second area is between your two brows; a good rule of thumb is to try and align the corners of each brow with the inner bridge of your nose. Stay away from the top of the brows altogether: if too much hair is removed, which is almost always the case, it’ll draw the shape downward.

What are some common mistakes?
Overtweezing and overwaxing. If you remove too much hair from the center, not only will your nose looks wider, but all of your other features will look harsher. If you take off too much from the outer ends, your brows will look short, straight, and shapeless, and it can really age your face.

Why should you tweeze as opposed to waxing or threading?
The area around your eye is the thinnest skin on the body and the first to sag with age. Waxing stretches this delicate skin and there is no precision. Threading may be better for the skin, but again, the precision is not there because you’re removing more than one hair at a time. Because threading requires pulling in multiple directions, it can also break the hairs, which leads to ingrowns and coarse regrowth.

If my eyebrows are too thin or sparse, what can I do to get fuller-looking brows?
Don’t let your daily moisturizer touch your brows. When lotion seeps into the hair follicles, it block growth and can even cause hair to fall out. Generally speaking, keep everything off of your brows to let them breathe and you'll see growth.

The Don’ts

Never use a magnifying mirror. You get too close and lose perspective of the overall shape of your brows.
Don’t use pointy tweezers because they can easily break the skin.
Avoid using an extremely bright light because you’ll see too much, which will lead to overtweezing.

To check out all the items Sania Vucetaj keeps in her eyebrow tool kit, click here.